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I will probably buy an XBox Arcade to use as an extender now. It seems to be the most affordable of all Windows Vista MCEs now.

I've actually been looking at buying one for quite a while (but waiting on the price cut).  The only thing holding me back from buying said-Elite is the reliability issues... Where do the Elites stand on noise and red-ring potential?

Now I'll buy one for my daughter so I DON'T HAVE TO LISTEN TO THOSE KIDS FIGHTING OVER ROCK BAND, sorry didn't mean to shout.

Gotta get some new songs,never thought I'd get tired of "Gimme Shelter"

Anyone wanting a Blu-Ray player will be sorely tempted by the PS3 as it's comparably priced, faster, and has frequent firmware updates (hence more compatible.)  At $399, it's like getting the gaming system for free.

I think Xbox 360 sales will increase, but won't put a dent in the Wii.  As Bill Clinton might have said, "It's the software and the wireless 3D controllers, stupid."

@lehenbauer. The PS3 is faster? Not really. Some time ago, GameSpot made a comparision between the graphics quality of the same games in the X360 and the PS3 and the MS console won in almost every title - and as you know, graphics quality is what you get when you have a faster hardware.

Anyway, in a console, the games are made for that particular hardware, so the arguments about performance are a little bit irrelevant. The 1st generation Xbox was (is) faster than the PS2 and that was never enough to gain traction in the market. In the end, it's the games library that will make the difference.

"and has frequent firmware updates (hence more compatible.)"

Not so fast.  ALL currently releasing PS3 have absolutely NO backwards compatibility with the PS2.  Also, Sony has said that PS2 compatibility won't be worked on in the future, so if you want PS2 games, get a PS2.  Most games on the PS3 don't get any more than one bugfix patch too.

The only thing that can be said about the firmware updates is that they offer the new Blu-ray profile updates and audio bugfixes which seem to occur with the format.

BTW:  I just got accepted to PS Home.  Now I just have to get myself a PS3, upgrade the measly 80GB drive to something like a 250GB, download Home, and I'm all set.  ;)

@kalewallace, I have an elite and a PS3.  

My elite was bought in May of 2007?  Or when ever it was first released.  Two months ago it RROD on me.  I had a March 2006 360 that RROD on my twice and so I had sold it to a friend, and got the elite because I had thought it would be more reliable and it had HDMI.  I play games with a bunch of guys (about 23) and we all started out with a 360, and all but 1 of us has had at least 1 RROD.  MS will fix them with out any hassle these days, as soon as you say I have 3 red blinking lights they cut you off and tell that a box is coming.  You are down anywhere from 3-4 weeks and they do give you a free month of Live , via a Live card that you type in the code.

If you are looking for ONLY gaming, especially online gaming I would say go with the 360, massive hardware failures and all.  The 360 has more games, and hooking up with friends to play games if super quick and easy.

Now if you want to use your console as a media center device plus gaming, then avoid the 360 at all costs.  The PS3 is super quiet.  The fan that cools the light bulb in my Samsung DLP set makes more noise than the PS3.  Almost all new games are now shipping at the same time for the PS3, (COD4, Battlefield Bad company, Force Unleashed, Fall Out), plus the big name PS3 exclusives are starting to ship, MGS4, Socom..etc.  I swapped out my hard drive in my PS3 in 10min, and put in a 320gig drive from newegg at a cost of $99.  I use Hand Brake to rip my DVD's to h.264 files with an average size of 1.8-2.2gig each, so I have a few movies on my PS3 that I start via the menu.  The PSN/PS3 keeps adding features with updates, trophies/Friends list, etc and its FREE.  About half of the guys I play with have moved to the PS3.  You get to the end of your Xbox Live subscription and you feel like "man should I do this for another year, considering the hardware failures?".

Of course the PS3 has Blue Ray which is a very attractive feature.

I have  an Elite that my daughter and her friends had been using for gaming for a long time. I also had set it up as an extender for her in her room. Now that she is off to college, and left the 360 at home, I moved it up to the living room. There have been no issues with the box (he says, with fingers crossed). I guess that the noise hasn't been an issue on mine, or I am too old and deaf to notice it...because, really, I'm not hearing it...only when a disk first spins up. But, I am not a big A/V nut, either.

Can anybody tell me if there is a way to stream audio and video from a PC to a PS3? I would truly consider one if I could do that...now that BluRay has won the format wars.

--tayme

@tayme, I think you can use Media Center on a PC with the PS3, never tried it my self.  Here is a link, on the right are some choices.

uk.playstation.com/.../Connecting-to-other-devices

For OS X I use.... www.nullriver.com/.../medialink

The 360 loud when using the DVD drive.  Its just OK not using it, I can still here its fans but its considerably quieter.  So when watching a DVD is bad.

Pingback from  re: Microsoft Slashes 360 Prices in U.S. |  Online Gaming

@Lindy - Very cool. Thanks! I hadn't even searched yet, so I figured someone here would know. I may have to buy a PS3. NOw, how to get it in the door without my wife knowing?!?

--tayme

@Lindy

You've made it a little less difficult.  I've been eyeing the PS3 for quite a while as well but am worried about the lack of titles.  I also don't care for the controller shape and size, not to mention the lack of backward compatibility.

Anyway, I've heard that the newer XBOXs are quieter and less likely to red-ring.  However, Microsoft knows there definitely is a problem with some of their systems and are quite willing to trade them out.  I'm still suspended between the two choices though.

Any other +/- that makes you lean one way or another besides the previously mentioned?

This is good news. Keep cutting down that price and make it irresistable to pass up. However, I feel that Microsoft did blow an opportunity. Instead of the pro's new price of $299, IMO Microsoft should have matched the Wii's price point of $249. Heck, I would have gone lower like $229. Anyways, I'm glad they did lower the prices down.

I bought my 360 in May of 2007. However, thanks to all the heat issues that was brought up by Paul, I just bought a cooling system to go with it. Loud yes. I've not experience one RRoD, and the system boots up every time. It gives me long term gaming. I just turn up the volume and keep gaming.

I figure when the new hardware version comes out, I'll swap it at the local Gamestop. Just like I have when newer and more efficient versions of the PS1, 2, and Xbox.

At the local Fry's I can get a blu-ray burner for under $160. Microcenter has a blu-ray burner for under $140. So the PS3 isn't the cheapest route. Better to just upgrade your optical drive, still gain the ability to watch movies in full HD, and save money for all those Blu-Ray movies. As for the gaming, might as well get one of the backwards compatable PS3's for discount than pay full price for an expensive Blu-Ray player. I now have one friend who has as PS3 and 100 percent of the time he uses it strictly as a player. Most of his gaming is on his 360 and the Wii console.

However I will say this, Microsoft does need to work on getting better titles out lately. This summer was not good at all.

What I wonder is whether Microsoft can make money at these prices.  Or are they going to be selling them at no margin just to chase market share?

Anyone know the answer?

@kalewallace,

The newest 360's use the Falcon chipset or CPU cant remember what I read.  Its a .65nm GPU I think.  Plus they have newer heat sync on them now.  So I would think if you bought one today the RROD potential is probably decreased for sure.  Down the road the 360 is going to have both a CPU and GPU that is .65nm, which is a shrunk die/chip.  This is key because it uses less power and produces less heat.  Heat being the cause of the RROD.

I do prefer the 360 controller, but its not that much of a difference IMHO, took me an hour to get use to the PS3 controller, and mainly because the main fire button is swapped, so I kept changing weapons when I meant to shoot which got me killed a lot.

The PS3 also has no external power brick.  The 360 has a big one, not that big of a deal, just messy and bulky behind any setup.  If traveling to say a LAN party or taking to a friends house, just more mess to lug around.  

The PS3 comes with wireless and ethernet, the 360 does not.  It needs a external wireless device, $99 from MS, which is USB, or you could go with a wireless Bridge, I use a AirPort Express N, jacked into the ethernet port of my 360.  My router is wireless N as well set to 5ghz so I get a really good speed.   The 360 thinks its wired.

The newest PS3, came out a few weeks ago is a 80gig model that has a .65nm CPU/GPU update so it has a max power usage of 135watts, down from 200 from what I read.  I think the 360 has a max of $175 now, cant be sure, too lazy to look it up.

@subzero, summer is alway the dry season for gaming:)  When Madden football comes out the signals the start of new games typically.

So just recently you have seen Madden and Merc 2, The force Unleashed is coming next week, then then flood in the fall, COD5, Fable 2, Socom, MotorStrom2, Gears of War 2 and more.

Sony has been catching up on the titles.  With virtually every new game being available on both consoles AND sony having blu-ray, AND sony online gaming is FREE the only way MS could compete is on price.  

For those who said this is good for the consumer, you're correct cheaper is better.  For MS not so good, it simply means more years losing money in the games market.

For those arguing over graphics, I think the Wii has proven that graphics aren't the end all be all, both the 360 and PS3 have amazing graphics, unfortunately for both companies that no longer drives sales of consoles.

As far at the MS being the better media player, I disagree, with its proprietary drives, you would have to keep it perpetually tied to a server.  Not exactly the most energy efficient way to watch a movie.

Regards

Joe Dokes

PS3 is a way better media player, DVD, BLue Ray, bigger hard drives for local content, network connectivity out of the box.  Blue tooth support for keyboards and mice out of the box.  

The web browser blows but it works.

@subzero what does a cheap Blue Ray burner going to do for the 360???  Not going to plug it into it?  I dont buy blue ray movies or not many at all, but I do have BlockBuster in the mail subscription and have my account set to ship blue ray if available, at no additional cost.

BTW:  PS3 Home is amazing.  The gaming library, not so much, but there are some real gems.  I must be getting too old that I'm looking at a game console as an exciting entertainment device more for social networking and multimedia than for actually playing games on.

"The web browser blows but it works."

Except on the webpages that it doesn't....

"Except on the webpages that it doesn't...."  Lol, probably I just tried gmail and a few others, some web parts did not show up for sure.

@Lindy:

It's called Netfront, and the same one that's on the PSP (except that the PSP version is even more limited).  It doesn't support most AJAX sites, and Flash is limited to version 7, so basically useless.

Netfront is defunct, and the company shows no signs of improving it beyond the limited HTML 3.2 support that it has now.

@subzero what does a cheap Blue Ray burner going to do for the 360???  Not going to plug it into it?

Answer:

1.) Save you cash to buy games.

2.) Save more data incase your PC crashes.

3.) Get a Blu-Ray burner and still have money to buy a 360 or a Wii.

4.) Buy or rent more Blu-Ray

5.) Save your money period.

Why spend over $400 dollars, when you can buy a Blu-Ray burner for less, and still have cash for a better 360 or a Wii. Besides, the 360 games have been better graphically and have consistently rated higher. So you can get your Blu-Ray on and still afford something else. While the PS3 is a decent console, the games do not match up to their 360 counterparts.

And you're 100% right about summer. I've already reserved the Force Unleashed.